Yes Centaurus, great stories, well told.
Now I'll have to go and turn the house upside down to find that book by William Manchester (
Death of a President,
American Caesar, and others) that he wrote after he revisited his old Marine battlegrounds in about '78 or '79. Took him to Kieta and back through Munda in a Queenair when Paul Brown gave him a ticket, and when the book came out bought a copy. Made some notes in it in pencil that differed from his recollection of the day. Put it down to Writers Licence or bad transcription of his notes when he got home. At one point he wrote that I had pointed out crocodiles from the air when what I had most likely said was that there were crocodiles in the creeks, - and that I had pointed out the wreck of J.F.K.'s PT 109 - when in reality I had pointed out a beached L.S.T. wreck near Noro, and shown him the junction of Blackett Strait and Fergussen Passage, and Plum Pudding or Kennedy Island, near where the 109 was rammed and sunk by the destroyer. Years later a letter was forwarded to me, from a person in the States who had read his book and wanted information on the exact location.
(A team with a remote sub came to Gizo much later and did manage to take pictures of half of the wreck for National Geographic.)
When we got back to Munda from Kieta, he almost passed out on the tarmac, so I left him there at Agnes Rest House while I went off and did a charter, then picked him up again later on the return flight to Honiara. When I find his book, I'll tell you what was written.
